Thursday, May 31, 2012

Speaking Of Fifth-Tier Pianists . . .

As long as I am on the topic of fifth-tier pianists, I submit a query: why would a professional pianist, albeit a fifth-tier pianist, publish on his website a photograph such as the one below? The photograph positively screams, “I am not a serious artist.”

The man in the photograph, an Israeli, is known, if he is known at all, not for his musical talent but for the men who have passed through his life.

For four or five years, the man was associated with oddball Danish/Israeli violinist Nikolaj Znaider, ten years his junior, until that association was abruptly terminated in 2003 or thereabouts.

More recently, the man has been associated with oddball New York architect Charles Renfro, who at least is more or less the pianist’s age.

The question remains: what goes through a person’s mind—a 47-year-old person’s mind, I might stress—when he decides to publish such a foolish photograph of himself? (And there are many, many more such foolish photographs on this man's website.)

About Me

I am a lawyer, born and reared in the Twin Cities. Family is everything to me. My mother I adore and my father I worship (my father is also a lawyer). I have two older brothers whom I love dearly: one, 39, is married and has a young son and daughter and works as a financial analyst; the other is 36 and single and works as a civil engineer. My brothers and I were dispersed for years while being schooled and while establishing careers (Boston, Palo Alto, London, New York; Ames, Fort Collins, Denver; Princeton, Vienna, Washington, D.C., Boston), but we are all home now—and, it is my hope, we are all home for good. The newest member of my family is Joshua, whom I met in Washington while I was in my last year of law school and while Josh was in his last year of undergraduate studies. We immediately became inseparable and have faced the world together practically from the day we met. We have recently returned to the Twin Cities from Boston, where Josh gained his Juris Doctor. We have many interests and participate in numerous and diverse activities, yet we are mostly homebodies, playing sports, reading history tomes (and passionately discussing them) and spending time with family.